Don't Forget Me Tomorrow (Time River, #2)

by A.L. Jackson

“Guess I like you on your knees for me.” A snort left my nose. I’d been for years, and she didn’t have a clue.

“That’s where you have it wrong, Dakota. You can. I expect you to call me. Whatever you need. And there is no such thing as too much when it comes to you. Do you understand?” The words left me like a tumble of stones. A plea and a demand.

I’d been in love with Ryder Nash since I was nineteen, probably earlier than that if I was being honest with myself. I was working on getting over that, though.

I guess it was true that sometimes enemies made the best lovers.

Caleb smiled, all the sharp angles of his face softening as his eyes crinkled at the sides. The man had been so hard and rigid when he’d first shown up in town. Loving someone looked good on him.

Beth never failed to give me crap about Ryder. “Don’t you start. That boy is here every other day, hanging around like a puppy dog, nothing but a mutt begging for food.” “Um, yeah, he does come to eat,” I drew out. “Looks to me like you’re feeding him the wrong thing.”

“I’m not sure, Dakota, but if you are? I promise I will take care of you. Protect you.” “Why?” “Because protecting you is what I was created to do.”

“Are you sure it’s not a bother?” I asked. “Like I said, taking care of you is what I was meant to do, Dakota.”

It made me freaking blush that he had a chocolate chip cookie tattooed just above his right hip.

She finally gave in, looking up at his eyes that were the same color as the night. Twinkling like they had stars in them, but so dark she couldn’t tell how deep they went.

“Love is on house.” He slurred through the words, and my chest fisted, so tight I thought it might cave, and I leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “That’s right. Love is on the house. Free and forever.”

“I can’t take that risk with you, Dakota, and not with Kayden, either. Please. Stay with me.” “We each have our own lives, Ryder.” I forced it out around the tumult. His teeth ground. “You are my life, Dakota.”

But what got me was her expression as she took me in where I held her son. Cinnamon eyes shimmering with something so right. Like maybe she’d stepped in on her meaning, too.

I’d gotten too close, and I was getting inundated with her scent. Sugar and vanilla and every fucking thing sweet. I wanted to lean in and take a bite.

“Did he touch you?” Her head barely shook, the word a breath. “No.” “Did you want him to?” “No,” she whispered again, the word a short gasp. “Why not?” My nose brushed her jaw when I asked it. The air that had been crackling flamed. She met my gaze, and she lifted that chin. In it was both surrender and defiance. “Because the only person I want to touch me is you.”

“I’ve wanted you to touch me since I understood what desire meant.” He’d become the meaning of it. The reason for it.

“This ass, Dakota. Thing dreams are made of. Did you know that? The way I’ve wanted to get my hands all over it? Mark it? Claim it?”

“What I’m thinking right now is I have a goddess kneeling in front of me.” “I’ve always been here, Ryder. On my knees for you.” “No, Cookie. It’s always been me. A beggar at your feet.”

“Do I want you to? I’ve been dying to feel that sweet mouth around my cock for years. You don’t have the first idea how fucking bad I want you, do you, Dakota? How many times I’ve imagined you just like this, getting ready to wrap those perfect pink lips around my dick?”

“You are playing with fire, Dakota Cooper.” “Maybe I want to burn.”

“It’s pierced, Paisley. Like, oh my God…how was I even supposed to handle it?” She choked and grabbed me by both wrists that time. “I told you that you needed to go dick-hunting, and you landed yourself a prized stag? There is no handling that. No one could blame you for anything that happened after.”

“Thank you. For everything. I couldn’t do any of this without you. I don’t know how I could ever repay you.” She brushed her thumb under my eye. “Love is on the house.” Everything swelled and rushed. “Thank you for teaching me that. What it means.” “It’s who we Coopers are.”

“You’re looking at me like you want me to wreck you, too.” “You wrecked me a long time ago.”

“I keep trying to stay away from you. Don’t think I know how to do it any longer. Don’t think I can.”

“And who do you want to be?” “I want to be the guy who’s pleasing you. The one who’s making you come. Over and over again. I want to make you beg my name.”

“Look at her. This woman who is so strong and fierce. One who strives for what she wants. Fights for it. But she’s also good, through and through. So thoughtful and kind that it breaks my heart looking at her because I know I could never be a match to who she is.”

“Look at you, Dakota. Do you have any idea what I see when I’m looking at you? A goddess in the morning. The light breaking inside me.”

“I love you, Dakota. I’m gone for you. Since I was twenty-two fucking years old, I’ve been gone for you. Since you became the one thing in this world that could soothe the ache inside me. Since you became the reason to look beyond my circumstances. Since you reminded me of the good things this world might have to offer.”

“You saved me, Dakota. Saved me when I was lost. When I’d given up. And I keep trying to push you away because I know I don’t deserve you. But I can’t do that any longer. I can’t fucking deny that you are the one thing in this life that I’ve been living for. You are the light breaking the darkness inside me. And I’m begging you, please don’t walk away.”

“Cookie,” I murmured. “Tell me I’m not too late. Tell me you still love me, too.” “Do you think I could ever stop loving you?”

“I will never let anything happen to you or Kayden, Dakota. I won’t. I will protect you with everything I have. Fight for you, but in that, I have to fight this. I have to finally put it behind me, and I don’t know what that looks like, but I promise you that everything I’m going to do is for you. For us. For this family. The family that should have been mine from the beginning.”

Now that I’ve touched you, Dakota, it’s the only thing I want to do.”

“Tiny Tornado. The perfect kind of havoc in my life. I’m going to do everything in my power to do right by you. By your mom. I love you more than should be possible. With the kind of love that doesn’t exist. Not until the two of you created it.”

“You can accept it, Dakota. Because I want to give you everything you deserve in this world. I want to watch you soar. Fly. Take hold of every dream you’ve ever wished. And I want to be worthy of watching you do it.”